sub linkify {
    my $text = shift;

    # translate the square bracket URL links to real (HTML) links

    1 while $text =~ s/\[((?:(?:(?:(?:(?:http|ftp|gopher|news):\/\/)|mailto:)|\/)[^\|]+?)|\/)\]/<a href="$1">$1<\/a>/;
    1 while $text =~ s/\[((?:(?:(?:(?:(?:http|ftp|gopher|news):\/\/)|mailto:)|\/)[^\|]+?)|\/)\|(.+?)\]/<a href="$1">$2<\/a>/;

    # translate the square bracket select (com, net, org only) email links to
    # real (HTML), mailto: links

    1 while $text =~ s/\[(.+?@.+?\.(com|net|org))\|(.+?)\]/<a href="mailto:$1">$3<\/a>/;
    1 while $text =~ s/\[(.+?@.+?\.(com|net|org))\]/<a href="mailto:$1">$1<\/a>/;
    
    # Google, for instance.  Others become easy by following this example.

    1 while $text =~ s/\[(google):\/\/([^|]+)\]/<a href="http:\/\/google.com\/search?q=$1">$1<\/a>/;
    1 while $text =~ s/\[(google):\/\/([^|]+)\|(.+?)\]/<a href="http:\/\/google.com\/search?q=$1">$2<\/a>/;

    return $text;
}